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Opinion

Act gives false hope to students

Kalaiah Vaughn
Opinion Columnist 

When President Bush started his second term in 2004, he promised the American people he would raise education standards by "leaving no child behind." 

To make good on his promise, he signed the No Child Left Behind Act, which supposedly served as a catalyst in rectifying many of the wrongs within the public school system. 

But instead of rectifying wrongs, the No Child Left Behind Act seeks to add to the stain of lackluster education imbrued upon the fabric of the public school system. Rather than give intellectually malnourished children the academic sustenance they need, a clandestine clause within the act adds to their solemn plight. 

This clause allows schools to give students who fail the state test required for graduation the opportunity to walk with their senior class and receive a certificate of attendance -- not a high school diploma. 

One would think that upon receiving such a certificate, one could complete a GED program. 

However, a certificate of attendance permanently forbids a student from getting a GED, attending vocational or technical school, community college, or an adult education program. 

That means the student could not go to beauty/barber college, receive a GED, serve in the armed forces or repair an air conditioner.

This shocking revelation was discovered by several students who attended high school in Iowa. They received certificates of attendance, and to their dismay, that is all they would receive.

The students most likely to receive this permanent dismissal from success are disadvantaged children of color. 

The act was created because the government finally smelled the stench of inadequate education. 

The students who fail state-mandated exit exams more often than not come from disadvantaged homes and overcrowded schools and suffer from misdiagnosed learning problems. 

These are the children who "slip through the cracks" every year. 

These are students who repeat grades and are passed through school because underpaid teachers do not have the time or resources to assist them inside overcrowded classrooms. 

Unfortunately, we live in a country where some children are denied the right to succeed. 

Vaughn, an opinio mailto:dccampus@mail.uh.edu n columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at dccampus@mail.uh.edu.